The Coastguard crew wanted to be close to potential emergencies like kayakers caught in wind changes. Kelly roundly rejects the Francis allegation, saying he totally supports the Coastguard and apologises if Francis got the wrong end of the stick.

On Tuesday last week, Coast­guard moved its $500,000 Naiad from Frankton Marina to the little-used public jetty by Earnslaw Park’s booking kiosk.

The move was on the say-so of local harbourmaster Marty Black, who this week said Queenstown and Wanaka had had the worst start to a boating season in years.

Francis says Kelly called on Christmas Eve, alleging Coast­guard had commandeered Kawarau Jet’s berth in front of the public jetty.

“We said, ‘we don’t think we have, the harbourmaster said we’re on the public berth’,” maintains Francis.

“Then [Kelly] said, ‘my boat’s going to sit in front of you and you can’t get around it’.

Francis: “We said we can get around it. He said, ‘what about when I put a twin [engined boat] there, you won’t be able to get around that’.